A guide to mining 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K filings for supply chain intelligence — from customer concentration disclosures to supplier dependency analysis.
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SEC filings are the most underutilized source of supply chain intelligence. Every public company is required to disclose material relationships, customer concentrations, and risk factors in their annual and quarterly filings. These disclosures create a structured, reliable dataset for mapping supply chain networks — if you know where to look.
Several SEC regulations mandate supply chain-related disclosures:
The most directly useful requirement. Companies must disclose revenues from any single customer representing 10% or more of total consolidated revenue. This creates a floor of visibility into customer concentration across every public company.
The disclosure typically appears in the notes to financial statements under "Segment Information" or "Concentration of Risk." For example:
"During fiscal year 2024, Customer A accounted for approximately 26% of net revenue, Customer B accounted for approximately 14% of net revenue, and Customer C accounted for approximately 11% of net revenue."
Some companies name their major customers; others identify them only as "Customer A." But cross-referencing across filings, industry knowledge, and other public sources often reveals the identity.
The risk factors section frequently discusses supply chain vulnerabilities:
While less structured than ASC 280 data, risk factor disclosures provide qualitative context about the nature and severity of supply chain dependencies.
The business description section often discusses:
MD&A provides forward-looking commentary on supply chain issues:
Start with the ASC 280 disclosures. For each company you're analyzing, extract:
Pro tip: When customers are unnamed ("Customer A"), look for:
Supplier dependencies are less standardized in disclosures but still findable:
Risk Factors section: Look for phrases like:
Business Description section: Look for:
MD&A section: Look for:
SEC filings disclose material contracts:
Form 8-K: Immediate disclosure of material events, including:
Exhibit 10: Material contracts attached to 10-K filings. These can include:
The real power comes from cross-referencing disclosures across multiple companies:
Individually, each data point is useful. Together, they reveal the full picture of a supply chain relationship — its size, duration, competitive dynamics, and trajectory.
Customers below the 10% threshold aren't required to be disclosed. A company with 50 customers at 2% each looks well-diversified, but you won't know from filings alone whether those relationships are stable.
SEC filings primarily reveal direct (tier-1) relationships. Your supplier's suppliers — the tier-2 and tier-3 relationships — aren't disclosed in your company's filings. You need to read the suppliers' own filings to map deeper.
Filings tell you the size of a relationship but not its quality. A 20% customer concentration could be a stable, decades-long partnership or a contentious relationship where the customer is actively seeking alternatives. Earnings calls and industry checks fill this gap.
10-K filings are annual. 10-Q filings are quarterly. By the time a filing is published, the data is weeks to months old. For real-time supply chain changes, monitor 8-K filings, press releases, and earnings calls.
For a small portfolio:
This works for 5-10 companies but quickly becomes unmanageable for larger portfolios.
Modern supply chain intelligence platforms parse SEC filings at scale:
Macroplane automates this entire pipeline. Enter a ticker, and the system pulls relevant SEC filing data, maps the supply chain graph, and surfaces concentration risks — all from the same public data that's available to every investor, but processed systematically and continuously. Companies are automatically organized into product categories and linked to relevant macro trends, so you can see the bigger picture beyond individual filings.
The SEC filing data is public. Everyone has access to it. The edge comes from:
Investors who systematically mine SEC filings for supply chain intelligence are playing a different game than those who read filings in isolation. They see the network, not just the node. And in a world where supply chain disruptions drive some of the largest stock moves, that network view is increasingly where the edge lies. Start exploring industries and product categories, or build an investment thesis to structure your SEC filing research into actionable ideas.